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High-achieving entrepreneurs, like charismatic con men, tend to
be Type-A people who are long on vision and recklessness and
short on empathy. It's not that entrepreneurs are bad apples;
it's simply that when they are focused on taking care of
business, they tend to plow through anyone and anything that
stands in their way, without consideration for anyone's feelings.

That can be toxic for a workplace and downright deadly for your
business as a whole. "Lack of empathy has recently been on
cringe-worthy display among young tech CEOs and programmers,"
says Michael Coren, founder of digital-publication platform
Publet. "It's a deadly flaw for founders who want to build
products that people actually buy."

So enough with the tunnel vision already. You may be a "geek" god
who finds it hard to put himself in the average consumer's shoes
when it comes to tech products. Or you may think you're above it
all because you just raised a big Series A round. Whatever the
case, says Coren, "if you can't empathize with users and their
problems, then others will -- to their success and your failure."
More: What Not To Do:
Lessons From 'The Wolf of Wall Street'

Make your work place more like a video
game.
Nobody beats a video game on the first try. That's why video
games allow you to start over and play again. "Games are almost
always puzzles and algorithms to solve," says Dmitri Williams,
chief executive of Ninja Metrics, a Minneapolis-based game
analytics startup. "Solving them takes risk, iterations, and
failure." Encourage a similar problem-solving approach in your
work place. Everyone likes to praise creativity, but creativity
requires risk-taking, and risk-taking can lead to failure. Let
your employees know that it's okay to try new things and fail
rather than simply performing rote tasks the same way every time.
"Making 'do over' acceptable is a good thing," Williams says.
More: 3 Things
Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Video Games

Give regular positive enforcement.
Some managers may think that year-end performance reviews and
employee-of-the-month programs provide sufficient feedback for
employees, but they don't. To perform at their best, employees
need regular positive enforcement, says Bill Sims, Jr., president
of Bill Sims Behavior Change. One of the most powerful positive
reinforcers is feeling as if you get to make a different at work.
Another is simply hearing your boss thank you for your
contributions. "The key to being a great leader is ensuring that
your management system provides positive reinforcement for your
employees when they do something extra or just do something
well," Sims says. "Just like a muscle, this practice needs to be
done routinely and repeatedly for the best results."
More: Want Your Team to
Perform Better? Try Positive Reinforcement.

Stop self-handicapping.
When you're scared to fail, you may have a tendency not to risk
as much or to try as hard. That way you can protect your
self-esteem with an excuse if you don't succeed. This is known as
self-handicapping, and it gets in the way of many people's goals,
says writer and entrepreneur Scott Christ. Positive self-talk and
better habits can help you to overcome it. "Rather than 'I'm
going to fail,' try, 'I'll be fine. Even if the worst-case
scenario happens and I do fail, I’ll learn from it,'" Christ
says. " You can’t control everything, but you can control how you
react and the action you take." More: Are You Holding
Yourself Back? How to Use it to Your Advantage.

Use smaller plates for a healthier
lifestyle.
Your health is one of your greatest assets as an entrepreneur,
and your environment can play a big role in how healthy you are.
That's because our environment influences our habits, says James
Clear, an entrepreneur, weightlifter and photographer who writes
about how to improve your work and health. There are many things
you can change to encourage wellness in your life, but one simple
idea comes from a study conducted by Brian Wansink, a professor
at Cornell University: use smaller plates. Wansink and his team
found that if you serve your dinner on 10-inch plates instead of
a 12-inch plate, you will eat 22 percent less food over the next
year. Because of how your brain perceives size, what seems like a
small portion on a large plate actually feels more satisfying to
you when eaten off a small plate. More: 10 Simple Ways to
Eat Healthy Without Thinking